Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric (PGE) is a Fortune 1000 public utility based in Portland, Oregon. It distributes electricity to customers in parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - 44% of the inhabitants of Oregon. Founded in 1888 as the Willamette Falls Electric Company, the company has been an independent company for most of its existence, though was briefly owned by the Houston-based Enron Corporation from 1997 until 2006 when Enron divested itself of PGE during its bankruptcy.

Notably, PGE does not serve all of Portland. Its service territory comprises most of Portland west of the Willamette River, sharing most of the city east of the river with Pacific Power.

PGE produces and purchases energy primarily from coal and natural gas plants, as well as hydroelectric power from dams on the Clackamas, Willamette and Deschutes rivers. Between 1976 and 1993, PGE operated Trojan, the only nuclear power plant in Oregon. Trojan was the subject of three Oregon initiatives to shut it down. The initiatives failed, but the company elected to close the plant twenty years early.

Ballot measures have been filed by citizens several times since the 1960s to convert some or all of PGE into a Public Utility District (PUD), the latest of these being in 2003. Most were unsuccessful, but an exception was in 1999, when PGE announced it was selling its customer base in St. Helens, Scappoose, and Columbia City to West Oregon Electric PUD for $7.9 million. The terms of this sale proposed to leave the physical assets of the distribution system —the poles, wires and other components— owned by Enron, who would then manage this system as a contractor exempt from state regulation. Voter distrust of both Enron and PGE was severe enough for voters to approve the measure, despite $71,592 being spent in advertisements to oppose it, in comparison to the $2,304 spent by supporters. This resulted in those three cities becoming part of the Columbia River PUD on terms far more favorable to the customers; electricity rates immediately dropped in these cities, and remain lower than those for current PGE customers.

Concerned by uncertainty that the Enron bankruptcy would bring, several local governments began investigation into acquiring PGE by condemnation. These studies ended after the announcement on November 17, 2003 that a group called Oregon Electric Utility, led by former governor Neil Goldschmidt and backed by Texas Pacific Group, offered to buy PGE for $2.35 billion. This was the sole bid received by the bankruptcy judge, who approved the bid. When details that Goldschmidt had sexually assaulted a minor in the 1970s emerged, he withdrew from the negotiations, and was replaced by Peter O. Kohler, president of the Oregon Health and Science University.

Discomfort over the Texas Pacific purchase led to further voter initiatives to convert parts of PGE into PUDs. PGE defeated measures in Multnomah County (November 14, 2003), Yamhill County (March, 2004), and Clackamas County (May 18, 2004). Also during this time period, PGE received notice of a strike by 900 union workers, effective March 8, 2004, represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Points over which the negotiations broke down included retiree medical benefits as well as losses of the members' 401(k) plan. This labor dispute was resolved shortly afterward, and the union agreed to a new contract.

The TPG purchase offer was denied by the Oregon Public Utility Commission, a three-member regulatory board, on March 10, 2005. With the rejection of the Texas Pacific Group's offer, the City of Portland announced it contacted Enron to resume negotiating an offer to purchase PGE. On April 19, 2005, Portland city officials announced that they were willing to spend 7.5 million in attorneys' fees to buy the utility. On July 6, the City Council unanimously adopted a measure to finance the acquisition of PGE by the sale of $3 billion in bonds.

However, Enron interim CEO Stephen Cooper called off negotiations on July 20, 2005. He explained that he did not "see a plausible solution under which our teams could reach an agreement that would lead to a transaction closing in a timely fashion". Cooper addressed several causes for the termination, including the refusal of the city to pay a $50 million deposit on the sale. The same day, Governor Ted Kulongoski vetoed a bill that would create a public corporation to purchase PGE.

In April, 2006, shares in a newly independent PGE were issued as part of an Enron distribution to its creditors.

• Beaver Generating Plant - 516 MWe - located Clatskanie, Oregon.
• Port Westward High Efficiency Gas Power Plant 1 & 2 - 401 & 224 MWe capacity. Located next to Beaver Generating Plant.
• Carty Generating Plant - 440 MWe - located next to and will replace the Boardman Coal Plant.
• Coyote Springs Generating Plant - 248 MWe - located in Boardman, Oregon; began operating in 1995. Coyote Springs is a combined cycle cogeneration plant
• Colstrip Power Plant 3 & 4 - 296 MWe - located in Colstrip, Montana.
• Total: 2125 MWe
• Boardman Generating Plant (coal) - 601 MWe - located in Boardman, Oregon. Closed on October 15, 2020.

• Faraday (Clackamas River) - 46 MWe
• North Fork (Clackamas River) - 58 MWe
• Oak Grove (Clackamas River) - 44 MWe
• River Mill Hydroelectric Project (Clackamas River) - 25 MWe
• T.W.Sullivan (Willamette River) - 18 MWe
• Pelton Dam (Deschutes River) - 108 MWe
• Round Butte Dam (Deschutes River) - 300 MWe
• Total: 559 MWe
• Bull Run (Sandy and Little Sandy rivers) - 22 MWe (decommissioned, 2007)

• Biglow Canyon Wind Farm - generating capacity of 450 MWe
• Tucannon River Wind Farm - generating capacity of 267 MWe
• Marion County Waste-to-Energy Facility - 13 MWe from municipal garbage incineration
• Total: 730 MWe

Grand Total: 3414 MWe